Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities (Comic Review)

It seems that melding any genre with horror is still a growing craze in comics (and beyond) and I do enjoy most attempts at this mixed genre work but I really enjoyed this 2006 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics. Kyle Hotz's artwork was absolutely beautiful. The story involved a wild west version of Dr. Frankenstein, lots and lots of monsters, and Billy the Kid working with a bunch of carnival sideshow performers. How could you go wrong with that? Well, you can't!



The graphic novel is available on Amazon (and lots of other sources) for less than six bucks (USED) and is highly recommended.

American Scary (review)

I just finished watching AMERICAN SCARY, a documentary about the history of US based horror hosts, and I had to rush over to my computer and rant and rave about the show on my blog. Many will probably nitpick it to death if it doesn't include their favourite horror host but it does manage to hit most of the biggies (Elvira, Ghoulardi, Vampira, Zacherle, and many more) and many of the small ones (Hoolihan and Big Chuck/Big Chuck and Little John - one of my favourites growing up in the Cleveland, Ohio area). They did happen to miss a few of my other favorites (Superhost for example) that I would loved to have seen again but there is always youtube for that! Minor quibbles aside, it is still an excellent piece of documentary film-making that is required viewing for every fan of the genre.

Available on dvd and on instant watch from Netflix (excellent quality on my home theater PC).


Zacherle Clip


Ghoulardi Clip


Svengoolie Clip


Vampira Clip


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Please Kill Me - The Uncensored Oral History Of Punk (a book review)

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (An Evergreen book) by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain



I just finished reading this and thought I would share a few comments. First, the title is very misleading. It's not so much a history of PUNK but more so the New York music scene in the days leading up to the PUNK movement. There are a few small chapters about the Sex Pistols but even those deal more with Sid and Nancy AFTER THEY MOVED TO NEW YORK!If you want to read about some of the pioneering New York bands that this is a recommended read (The New York Dolls, The Ramones and the Velvet Underground get a majority of this book but there is also a lot of information about Patty Smith, Television, The MC5, The Stooges (mainly Iggy Pop AFTER HE MOVED TO NEW YORK!).



There is really no mention of any other early punk bands short of the Pistols so if you are looking for that you should look elsewhere (ENGLAND'S DREAMING by Jon Savage or RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN by Simon Reynolds are both great places to start).



I found my copy of this book at Powell's in Portland for about ten bucks but you can get them on Amazon for six bucks or so if you go used. It is a nice first hand account of pre-punk New York history using interview from most of the primary players of the era and for that I can recommend it.

The Office (US tv show)

I think I should first start by saying that I absolutely HATE most American sitcoms that have been produced in the last twenty years. Ever since the somewhat revolutionary and groundbreaking THREE'S COMPANY it seems that there really is very little that is new, exciting, or funny. This is not to say that ALL of the shows are not funny to me, only that they really don't seem to be doing anything new and the punch lines are so obviously and blatantly set up that I just can't stand to watch. Throw in the almost ridiculously goofy laugh tracks and I just can't take it.

Normally I have a strong disliking for the 'copycat' shows - shows that were successful in the UK and then adapted for the US. I always wonder why we can't just watch the original shows and why can't our overpaid executives think of anything original?

This being said, I started watching the US version of THE OFFICE about midway through the second season. I originally enjoyed the UK version but my wife really did not care for it. It took me a while to get her on board with the US version but now she is an even bigger fan than me.

The characters are perfectly balanced and while I find many of them slightly annoying and a bit too weird they all mesh rather nicely and make up a pretty well balanced sitcom ensemble that never fails to delight from week to week.

The first three seasons are available on dvd and can be had for some pretty good prices if you keep watching the Sunday ads or the internet bargain forums. We have obtained all three seasons on DVD for less than fifty bucks and have already watched through them at least twice! Most of the episodes are loaded with deleted scenes and most of these deleted scenes are easily good enough to make the episodes but were cut for time considerations. Some of the episodes were obviously filmed to be an hour long but were cut to fit a half an hour so you get quite a bit of A+ material for these.

Class of 1999 - a Movie Review

Class of 1999 (1990)

Here we have an interesting amalgamation of 1980's themes - sort of like a poor man's Robocop meets The Breakfast Club. Starring lots of notable B-Movie actors and character actors - Pam Grier, Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach - and directed by Mark Lester - 29 movies in his IMDB credentials and I don't recognize a single one but for this - and you have what may end up being a direct to video disaster in the pre-direct to video era.

The New York Times actually gave it a good review but I can't say that I am as optimistic as that writer. Overall it was a mildly enjoyable take on the Robocop theme, the sets were all well done even without considering their obviously limited budget, and the story was interesting and moved along at a rather brisk pace.

My problems were with the absolute ludicrousness of the story. Hey, let's let some deranged psychopath with funky contact lens inserts design three robotic teachers (who also happen to be from a failed military robot program) come in and restore order to this school. I enjoyed the robots gone amuck story but it would have helped if they toned down Stacy Keach's character quite a bit.





The acting is another story - lots of Keanu Reeves School of Acting graduates here, including the lead, Bradley Gregg as Cody. I kept waiting for him to say 'Whoa.' He really does take the 'too cool for school' acting bit just a bit far.

According to Joe Bob Briggs, this was a sequel to the Class of 1984 but I don't really remember that one very much either. I watched it on Monsters HD and the print quality was good, slightly better than dvd but a little soft.

Terror Beneath The Sea (a review)

Well, it has Sonny Chiba in it. And, umm, it has Sonny Chiba in it. Can I say anything else? It is a Japanese movie that seems to have been filmed in English, dubbed to Japanese, and then re-dubbed back to English for us Americans. The dialogue is totally inane, the monster effects are about as poor as they come short of Ed Wood, and the plot is dizzyingly stupid.

At first it seemed like it was going to be a rip of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON but I just couldn't be that lucky.

This movie has the worst dialogue ever put to paper. I know, I know, Japanese movies dubbed in English are notoriously bad in this area but this when beats them all. It all seems as if it was written just to fit in the movie at the right place without any consideration as to it making a lick of sense.

Oh yeah, one more thing, Sonny Chiba was a pretty cool Kung Fu movie guy right? Well tell me why the $&!@ there is no Kung Fu in this movie, or heck, tell me why there isn't anything in this movie that utilizes Sonny's talents?


This one would have been better titled TERROR IN THE MOVIE STUDIO because it is a steaming pile of turd. If you know someone who thinks that WATERWORLD is the worst movie ever made steer them to this floater.

I watched this on MONSTERS HD and it was a pretty good print, maybe a bit better than standard dvd quality but a little soft. I don't recommend spending any money on it but if you must see it and can't wait Amazon has it for $12 (or even less used).